Fashionably Late

Did you know Series 1 was out? Yeah, I'm a little late to the game.  The Pirate checklist was very small this year so I knew pack busting was out of the question for me. My blog friends to the rescue!

Tony L won a box of Topps this year which was super cool.  It seems he has been spreading the cardboard love throughout the community.  He was nice enough to send the Pirates my way. 

One last wave of Pirate Cutch cards /tear. 

I like this card.  For as exciting of a player Cutch has been over the years he has a lot of boring cards. Even sets like Stadium Club have been a collective cardboard yawn.  This release is refreshing.

I'm suffering from Polanco fatigue. The guy has been in every set since his debut without having the production to really warrant the "star" cardboard treatment.  I'm sure I speak for most Pirate collectors that we would be ok for the likes of David Freese, Jordy Mercer and Francisco Cervelli seeing a few more cards.  I love collecting Polanco, but I'm all for some checklist variety.

Now we are talking.  Rivero burst onto the scene last year.  Nice to see him getting some cards.

Jaso actually looks like a Pirate so pretty much any card of him is fantastic.  The 1/1 version of this card was pulled by Brent and Becca.  I would love to have that, but I can't really justify paying a ton of money for a John Jaso card. 

Throwback!

From what I see on eBay the black parallels are still very sought after by collectors. Pumped that Tony pulled the Nova and sent it my way.  Getting unique cards of players like Nova is just as satisfying as getting a new Cutch. 

Tony also sent me a few extras beyond the Series 1 cards.

John Van Benschoten is a name that will haunt many Pirate fans.  He was a two way player in college in which many scouts thought he had a better chance to develop as a hitter that a pitcher.  Of course the Pirates took him with the idea of being a pitcher and it never worked out. 

A cool silver mini of the longest tenured Pirate.  I'm surprised the Pirates haven't traded Harrison after shipping off Cutch and Cole. 

Thanks so much for shipping the Buccos my way Tony! 

Thanks for reading!

I Know a Good Lawyer

At least I know a lawyer who is good at blogging about baseball cards (I'm sure Tony is good at lawyering too).  Perhaps he is an even better lawyer than a caveman...

Tony L of the fantastic Off Hiatus Baseball Cards and I both got our blogs up and running at about the same time.  While Tony and I build our collections differently I feel we both have the same mindset which has made us a good match for a continuous blind trade.  We've never met a Brewers/Pirates card we didn't like.  Vintage, oddball or auto, you name it and we're happy to add to our collections.

That mindset is what makes our trades fun. Each envelop from Tony has a different tone to it each time. Check it out....

Brian Giles was soooooo good as a Pirates.  I heard he was a bad teammate, but I didn't care. The guy could flat out rake. I always liked the Leaf relics from this time period because they show a picture of the actual bat the shaving of wood is from.

Kind of cool.  

The Pirates used their supplemental pick last year to take former big leaguer Charlie Hayes's son Ke'Bryan. While he has missed a good bit of time this year Ke'Bryan is highly thought of because of his advanced approach at the plate.  In his first year of professional ball he had an obp over .400. That will get you noticed, especially since he was a high schooler the year before. The only thing that would have made this card better is if they featured Charlie in a Pirates uniform.

 Like Hayes above, Newman is a former WV Black Bear.  Many people thought the Pirates picking him in the first round was a reach, but he has responded well so far to professional baseball.  I'm sure this makes Keith Law happy as he was the only national evaluator who praised the pick.

 We have slowly been seeing the return of the oddball release with Walmart and New Era releasing special topps cards. How cool would it be if cereal got back into the oddball game.  I would happily make my return to eating sugar laden cereal if it would result in cards.

 Probably the best Phillies card ever created.....maybe Teke could give it a run for its money.

 The Ultra sets were always kind of underrated.

 Obviously Kendall is the gem, but a John Dillinger card is a close second.

 Some minis of the early 90's core.

 If only Adam and Andy Laroche were good enough to get sweet nicknames like Little and Big poison.

 AL Oliver still shows up to games in Pittsburgh quite a bit.

A lot of people want to blame Cutch for the Pirates mediocre season so far.  The real root of the problem has been starting pitching, especially Liriano.  If the Pirates want to even dream about sniffing the wild card they will need to straighten out big lefty.

Thanks for the cards Tony.  I'm sitting on plenty more Brewers to hit you back real soon.

Variety is the Spice of Life

All around good guy Tony L of Off Hiatus fame busted a ton of boxes for the super traders. He was much wiser than me by choosing multiple boxes rather than one high end box that failed miserably. I guess hindsight is 20/20, but if I could do it over I would have went the variety route as well.  Oh well, maybe next time.

As usual Tony always throws in cool extras.  Here is 4 of the five Clemente's from an early 90's Spectrum set. Awesome stuff!

 The complete Front Row Stargell set!!!!

Got most of the stars and two Diamond Kings from the Donruss portion of the break. The checklists are so much better in Panini products. Now if they can just get the design figured out on Donruss they would have a winner.

Topps mini is always a nice addition to the break.  Kevin and I opened some of this as a way to avoid shipping costs for a break and it turned out to be one of our best boxes. We pulled a printing plate and several low numbered parallels of star players.

I didn't have the Credentials Clemente card so that was a cool addition. I like the Cooperstown set. Panini has a pretty good grasp on the legend sets. 

 I was probably most excited for the Contenders portion of the break. I've cherry picked the Newman and Kramer autos, but this was my first taste of the base set and inserts. I'm a big fan of the college cards so this was a winner in my book.  I hope this set sticks around.  The football version is crazy popular with auto collectors so maybe this one will catch on.

 The roster was pretty thin around this time for the Pirates.  They had already traded Jason Bay and the Nate McClouth was trade was on the horizon.  It was the very beginning the rebuild that would eventually turn the Pirates into perennial contenders.

I don't have many cards from this set so it was a great addition by Tony.

Of course it wouldn't be a Tony L envelope without oddballs. Boy do I love the Drakes Madlock.

Thanks for the super generous break Tony.  I really appreciate it.

Thanks for reading.

The Oddball Guy

Before blogging most of the oddballs in my collection were purchased by my parents as birthday and Christmas gifts. Store specific sets from Ames and Kay Bee Toys come to mind. In my mind these were the second coolest gift behind Nintendo games. 

As I got older and started purchasing cards with my own money oddballs became an afterthought. It wasn't that I didn't like them, but what little money I had went to officially licensed "big" card companies. 

Once I took the plunge with the blog I discovered so many more oddballs that I didn't even know existed. It felt like I was finding something new everyday. Soon enough I started receiving these cards in trade. My good pal Tony L of Off Hiatus Baseball fame has been the biggest contributor. 

A recent bubble mailer added to my growing collection.......

On some of these you could substitute Panini for Jimmy Dean. They used the same tricks then as they do now. When I was younger I only remembered cereal companies for food issued oddballs. Thanks to blogging I've discovered so many new ones. Drakes, Jimmy Dean and Tombstone just to name a few.  

I read a lot of prospect publications. Most are in consensus when it comes to the Pirates give or take a spot or two. One of the bigger discrepancies I've seen so far is Kevin Newman. Newman was the Pirates first round pick last year and most publications have him in the 9-12 range within the Pirates top 20. Keith Law is much more bullish and has him 4th. I hope he is right....

I love the Stargell Front Row cards!

Some of the bigger names in the Pirates system here including the likes of Josh Bell and Austin Meadows.

More oddball goodness from Tony. I've received a few TCMA cards recently which is really cool. These were from 1987 and honored the 60 Buccos.

I had to ask Tony about all these reprints.  Apparently they come from a book called Hall of Fame Baseball Cards.  Here is a link.  You learn something everyday.

Some Pacific throwback cards. I dig the Smoky Burgess!

A few more reprints because I don't know how to scan in order.

I remember getting a lot of Classic cards growing up. They were one of the first prospect sets.

Thanks for all the great cards Tony and for helping identify the perforated reprints. Those had me stumped. I think I'm officially out of Brewers trade bait so I've been looking around lately for some cool stuff.  Expect something soon.

Thanks for reading.

Candy, Dogfood and Hardware

Once I started trading on a regular basis I began associating certain types of cards with the people I trade with. Whether it be team, player or card type I immediately tie it to another blog. For instance when it comes to oddballs Tony is the man who has hooked me from our very first trade.

Tony has multiple card shows at his disposal so he makes for a great trade partner. While he has hooked me up with all types of cards, oddballs are usually the central theme. For this shipment of cards Tony went big time and sent me a whole priority mail box full of Pirate goodness. Here is sample of my favorites.

 A 2 for 1 deal with this conjoined Joyner/Pena M&M's card.

 I think this may be my first Purina card. If I do have anymore it was probably sent by Tony. It always seems like as soon as I have a grasp of what oddballs are out there something else pops up that I've never seen before.

Now these store centric cards are ones I'm pretty familiar with. Growing up my parents would always buy me these for birthdays and holidays. I still own many Kmart, Ames and Kay Bee toy cards.

This may be my favorite of the group Tony sent my way. Some non licensed cards that True Value hardware stores gave away. The funny thing is I had several of these stores around my neck of the woods but don't ever remember getting these. I wonder if you had to send away for the cards. Anybody know? I'm too lazy to Google search right now. 

 Words really don't do this card justice.

 Tony sent me a ton of multi-player cards. The Fleer Bonds/Griffey card was quite the sought after card in my house growing up. Always fun to see skinny Bonds before he transformed into a mutant.

 A lot of star power is this group with the likes of Clemente, Rose and Stargell. I think any card that features Clemente automatically wins as the favorite of the bunch.

 I've been on a nice quick lately adding some Parker's and Madlocks to my collection. Both are super affordable and have some of the best looking cardboard out there.

While oddballs and vintage were the main focus that doesn't stop Tony from sending some recent releases. I think we decided a while back that the green refractors should be called Matrix refractors. The Marte is numbered so that is a nice addition!

 Some minor league Buccos! Carlos Garcia is probably the most notable as he played for the Buccos in the early and mid 90's. He also coached the AA team in Altoona, but was fired in 2014.

This is actually full of candy. I'm thinking about cleaning it out and putting my synthroid that I take daily in place. Seems like a fitting pill case for me.

More Cobra! 

 I just recently showcased another Wagner modern card. I love all his modern cards.

 I do like cards of women.....

Thanks for the cards Tony. I already have enough Brewers put aside to send you something soon.  Just need to find time to do a mass mailing. 

Thanks for reading!